Thought of the Day: Hang On A Minute
I’ll be right back.Why doesn’t wrestling ever end in a cliffhanger anymore? Everything always has to be wrapped up in a nice bow and be ready for next week. You can end a show by asking a big question or mentioning that you need to tune in next week to find something out. For example, one of the very last Saturday Night’s Main Events ended with Bobby Heenan getting a phone call and saying that one of the Ultimate Maniacs had been injured and wouldn’t make Survivor Series. Want to find out who? Well tune in to the next show to find out!
Why is that so complicated? Not everything has to be self contained.
That was also an Attitude Era staple. While 90 percent of the show then could be complete garbage. the last 10 minutes could be sweet and end with a cliffhanger and you’d be like “damn, I gotta tune in next week to find out what happens!”
Every now and again I get that feeling but it’s not consistent enough. That needs to happen way more often.
Yeah that’s true. It doesn’t even have to be anything big. Just set something up for next week. Even if it’s a match. Stop making everything that day.
I”ll disagree a bit. This is episodic TV. Don’t you want it to feel that way? The shows people love these days, the Breaking Bads, Sons of Anarchy, HBO and Showtime shows, they don’t “wrap it up” every week. The story continues to move and you’re left often with more questions than answers. That’s how you should feel when you watch wrestling. I think that very quality would satiate the “Attitude Era” fans that constantly complain about the product being catered to kids. If you told stories in that way, they’d feel like they were watching Game of Thrones or something where you’re on the edge of your seat needing to tune in every week.
Heck, it works THROUGHOUT the show as well. I was sitting with a buddy last week and at like 10 o’clock we said “damn, we still have the Cutting Edge, Daniel Bryan’s announcement, and The Ascension’s debut. This is going to be awesome”. Just having stuff to look forward to, and in DB’s case, not actually knowing what might happen there, was the type of energy and feeling you want to feel as a wrestling fan. Like I said, they get it right sometimes, but if I left every show feeling like “oh damn, they did that. I wonder what will happen next week?” I think overall it would make a lot of people happy.
You’re right with the idea of having something to look forward to. That’s what I mean by setting something up for next week. Look at NXT, where they always announce something for next week. Granted it helps that they haven’t burned through every possible match three or four times and they actually know how to tell stories in more than one way.